An encounter with Red Indians, Eskimos of Canada

Unknown to many foreigners, Canada, a great and influential country, has about 50 ethnic minority groups, otherwise known as Red Indians. These indigenous or aboriginal people were the original inhabitants of the land before the arrival of Europeans. According to the 2016 Canadian census, more than 1.6 million people in Canada are Aborigines. They constitute 4.9 per cent of Canadian population. Southwest Bureau Chief BISI OLADELE, who has just returned from Canada, reports.

There are no fewer than 630 first nation communities in Canada, which represent more than 50 nations and 50 indigenous languages.

The peoples include Inuit, Metis and Oujé-Bougoumou Cree. Interestingly, the minority groups, who speak English or French, being the official languages of the country, enjoy greater privileges to develop their languages, arts, culture and values along with those of the Whites who are the most popular. Called First Nations, they have specialised institutions preserving their cultures with First Nations University as the ivory tower offering courses on their cultures, languages, arts, religion and values, among others.

I took a 300-Level course entitled: Contemporary English Usage in my undergraduate days at the Obafemi Awolowo University. I vividly remember how my lecturer, then Dr Olowe, explained with glee, how many Americans (then Britons) moved upwards to found the country known as Canada today because they did not agree with the approach of rejecting anything that bore semblance with the British culture while fighting hard to gain independence from the Great Britain around 1774. Olowe did not dig deep into the fact that the Britons (who were Americans already) conquered the inhabitants of the land of Canada and lorded their language and culture on them as they took complete control because we were only looking at the reason behind the difference in the spelling, lexicons, slangs etc between American and British English. The idea was to equip us with the history of modern English so we could have a better understanding of the contemporary use of the language in which we were to be awarded honor’s degree.

Three years later, I stumbled on George Guest’s book entitled: The History of Modern Civilisation. Guest did a thorough job, explaining the emergence of the US, then regarded as the New World. It was in the book I read much more about the original inhabitants of the land of America and Canada. But Guest and Olowe only called them Red Indians.

Since then, I was imagining how the inhabitants (or owners) of the land of world’s greatest nations look like. Do they look like the Asian Indians? Are they white, black or Caucasian? All these questions never received an answer until I travelled to Canada for the first time in July.

My host, who is a family friend, teaches Philosophy at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was conducting me through the beautiful university campus on my first day of visit when he led me to a beautiful building that stood alone from others. Then he declared: “This place is First Nations University. It is like a part of U of R (University of Regina). Their students are also our students. Here, they study about the original inhabitants of the land of Canada. They …”

I cut in: “You mean the the Red Indians are recognised here?” I asked, curiously. He answered in the affirmative. I was so elated as if I just won a lottery as I immediately concluded in my mind that I finally got the opportunity to meet the Red Indians at the long last.

“Are they here?” I asked.

“Yes. Students study their culture, language, arts, values etc here in this university.

“Are they the lecturers here?” I asked again. “Yes.” He answered. Then my interest grew bigger.

My friend further told me that most of their staff members are indigenous people. “It’s just their university.” He said, smiling as he recognized that he was satisfying my curiosity. My friend reveled in the fact that a Nigerian was giving a fellow citizen the much information about his new country to the level of great satisfaction. Before Canada, I had visited the US severally without ever sighting a Red Indian, the country in which their history is most popular.

With this discovery, I stepped out of the building, caught a better glimpse of the building and soaked in its architectural beauty. Then, I walked in again and prepared myself for an adventure. As we paced forward, we saw a young lady who was the receptionist. We also saw a few people descending the stairs and walking out of the building. I asked my friend’s quietly if they were the people I was eager to meet and he answered in the affirmative. “Wao! So, this is how Red Indians look like.” I told myself, Savouring my new knowledge.

In that ecstasy, I stepped forward to interact with the receptionist. She was warm and polite, as expected. I told her that I was a visitor from Africa, and that I was interested about the university and First Nations, as indigenous peoples were officially called in Canada. She took time to give me some printed materials about the subjects and also gave me descriptions of how I could move round the various public compartments of the building.

Eventually, I succeeded in booking an appointment with the institution’s Vice President (Academic), Bob Kayseas, for an interview about First Nations. Every bit of the interview exposed me to the history of the country. The interview also gave much knowledge about First Nations, their history, religion, language and values.